Air

Aina sat within a luxurious room upon a well cushioned stool. Before her, a mirror lay, reflecting her image back to her. In her palm, there was a pair of scissors. She held them open and up to her hair, thinking about how short she should cut it. But, for some reason, she was hesitating.

'Hm, it's a bit amusing.' She thought to herself. 'If I really was a vampire, I wouldn't have a reflection at all, now would I?'

It was a completely random and almost painfully childish thought.

Ever since she woke from her sleep, Aina had found her long hair very annoying. She couldn't use it to attack like some other people with weird abilities and she always had to compensate for it in battle so that her opponent couldn't take advantage. She couldn't for the life of her understand why she had allowed it to get so long.

What was especially frustrating was that every time she entered her peak battle state, her vitality would be stimulated and it would grow even longer. By then, she would have to trim the ends just to make sure she wasn't sweeping the ground with her every step.

'My facial structure is pretty good, I could probably pull off going completely bald… Hm…'

As Aina was lost in thought, she heard the sound of footsteps and her door clicking open. She lowered the scissors in her hand, forgetting her original purpose as she met the gaze of the person who had entered through the mirror.

The current Yuri was red and puffy eyed. She didn't look like she had gotten an ounce of sleep, but for someone as powerful as her, missing out on a single night's rest shouldn't have been enough to put her in such a state. Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.

As though she had to sneak around, she carefully closed the door behind her and locked it soon afterward. Her chest beat so wildly that it seemed that her heart might fly from her chest.

"Aina…"

Yuri's voice almost carried with it a pleading tone. Looking at her friend… no, her sister of so long, she felt as though someone was stabbing her through the heart repeatedly.

The current Aina looked as beautiful as an angel. The custom of white wedding dresses of Earth wasn't shared here, but none of that stopped her from shining like she was her own star.

She wore a dress of violet that wrapped around her proud peaks tightly before falling somewhat loosely down her hips and legs. Her delicate shoulders were adorned by a silk shawl embroidered with patterns of purple blooming flowers and her forehead wore a minimalistic crown of gold.

Her hair was meant to be done up with a very special hair pin reserved for the ladies of the Viola family who shared similarly high status. This job was to fall into Yuri's hands, but judging by her appearance, she wanted to use this chance to speak of something else entirely.

"Hm?" Aina blinked.

Her gaze looked Yuri up and down, seemingly trying to analyze something.

"You can't go through with this."

Aina's head tilted. "Didn't we already have this conversation yesterday? Why are we having it again?"

Hearing such a response, Yuri felt like banging her head against a wall. She knew that she shouldn't be doing this, she should be allowing Aina to stumble and fall on her own, just like one would in real life. Only this way would she be able to rebuild her personality the way it had been before.

But, Yuri just couldn't accept this. Aina was her treasure, the one person she respected to the depths of her soul, maybe even more than her own adoptive father. She had watched Aina go through so much as nothing more than a little girl. She couldn't stand the idea of her image and sense of self being tainted in this way.

Plus, who went through life without receiving any sort of advice? Miel knew of the danger of Aina not reawakening to her true self soon enough, so he took a hands off approach trying to expedite Aina's growth by allowing her to maneuver through situations alone. But then hadn't he been forced to step in due to the Void Palace anyway?

Everything was a mess. Everyone seemed to be trying to do their best with what they were given, but life and circumstances kept forcing them to trip and fall.

"Aina…" Yuri said with more urgency.

If she couldn't get Aina to agree, any sort of escape plan was meaningless. If the person in question didn't cooperate, any small chance they had was nill.

The truth was that Yuri knew it was helpless. After two days, they had no plan. Miel hadn't said anything to her, she had contacted Joel again only to learn that Leonel had refused, and now there was no one but her and Savahn. In fact, if it wasn't for Savahn stalling the other maids, she wouldn't even be able to be here to speak to Aina alone and give it one more try.

.

"Yuri, I know you worry for me, but there is really no need. The likelihood of escaping the Viola is near zero and even if we do, we'll be hunted down. The only escape would be getting accepted by the Void Palace, but why would the Viola allow me to continue to participate if we somehow managed to escape? It's one thing to run away, but if there's a location they know we have to be at, what good would that do?"

Aina's words had suddenly gone from overly childish to coldly calculative.

Yuri grit her teeth. "At least… At least do what I asked and speak to Leonel through me. If you have his grandmother's help, there'll be little the Void Palace can do to stop you from participating."

Aina looked toward Yuri as though she was looking at a naïve little baby.

"Didn't you see how the Luxnix treated them? If Rychard asks a favor of the Luxnix, do you think she could stop the combined might of the Luxnix and Viola all on her own?

"Plus, I've already said I won't contact him."

"WHY NOT?!" Yuri completely lost her cool, unable to hold it back any longer. "This isn't the time for pride! This is your life we're talking about!"

Aina shook her head. "Because he's a man of his word. He said he wouldn't come, so he won't come."

Yuri felt that all her air had been forcefully pulled out from her body as she fell to the floor.